Daniel Ling

Matching to sample of three-tone simultaneous and successive sounds by musical and nonmusical subjects

Simultaneous and successive sounds composed of three pure tones were judged by a three-choice matching-to-sample procedure. Music students performed significantly better than nonmusic students, particuarly under conditions where the choices involved successive sounds. Serial position effects among the three choices were analyzed in terms of signal detection theory. Nonmusic Ss showed a decrease in discriminability (d’) from the first to third choice; music Ss were also best at discriminating the first choice but had the lowest d’ for the second choice. These results were interpreted as indicating a qualitative difference in the manner in which music students respond to tonal sequences.